• modifier@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    I know it makes me sound like the old guy I am, but I lament the extinction of punctuation on social media.

    • figaro@lemdro.id
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      7 months ago

      Interestingly, no punctuation has become a form of punctuation. Ending your statement with no period has the effect of creating a softer landing for the sentence. With a period might come off too hard.

        • frunch@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I can’t see why they wouldn’t be

          See how that sentence got that soft landing as opposed to this one that informs you of the nature of the statement it’s at the end of? The first one doesn’t direct you to get excited or to take the statement as a question, but it also doesn’t give the hard ending of a period. It lets the sentence “breathe”

          • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I don’t feel like it extends to long(er) form communication. Texting, absolutely.

            Hello

            is very different from

            Hello.

            in text. Or lol is “that’s funny” and lol period is more “fuck you.” Longer things makes punctuation more necessary.

            • wormer@lemmy.ml
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              7 months ago

              yea?

              this is an informal sentence

              This makes it seem like I’m in a professional environment.

        • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Yup, there’s a book called “Because Internet” by Gretchen McCulloch that details intergenerational linguistics. Ultimately a lot of the answers boil down to “because internet” thus the name of the book, but it digs into the various causes of linguistic shifts in generations. Interestingly “written” communication has become much more relevant and so people have developed styles, techniques, and quirks to represent themselves. We see trends like young people not ending their sentences with periods, the use of ellipses, capitalization and more

          Remember, linguistics is a descriptive science and not prescriptive. You can’t control how people communicate but you can observe trends

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          I’m not a professional linguist, but I can confirm. It’s about trying to set a tone for your written sentences. We don’t use periods when we talk in real life, you know? Adding them to a text makes it read too serious

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I died a little when people started misspelling headlines on reddit just for the comment correction clicks rather than just downvoting it into oblivion.

      I have slowly relented on emoji since they can be handy at times but I dread using them so end up writing about 5x more to convey my intention than just using 😆😅😭🥹🤪🥺🤐😱🤬🤯🤮😈 or ☺️.

      • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        My problem with emojis is that they’re so often used for sarcasm that it’s hard to tell whether a 👍is supposed to be an “I agree” or a “yeah whatever”

        • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Meaning there’s a better emoji. Thumbs up has and should always mean just thumbs up.

          A more appropriate sarcastic thumbs up would be. 🤪👍

          The whole point of emoji is to literally help convey the direct emotion. If someone just uses thumbs up with no context expecting it to be read as sarcasm, then they just suck.

          Have you ever given someone a thumbs up irl without a dumbass face or full body twitch attached if it was sarcastic? I sure haven’t lol.

          [Serious] People hate on sarcasm tags but I’d go even further and preface nearly everything with Elcor emotion tags.

          • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            Have you ever given someone a thumbs up irl without a dumbass face or full body twitch attached if it was sarcastic? I sure haven’t lol.

            I actually have, when someone was annoying me. A goofy face wouldn’t convey the disinterest I have in continuing a conversation. I guess 😐👍 could work, but that requires enough effort that it undermines the disinterest part.

    • MBM@lemmings.world
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      7 months ago

      At least it doesn’t hurt the readability here. You should see the stream of consciousness Tumblr essays that use as little punctuation as possible and avoid all capitalisation.

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Depends on the context–a short statement can be fully understood on its own if separated by a paragraph (or just the end of the message itself). Lack of punctuation is really only an issue with huge run-on sentences.

      But I’m on board with a little message chilling on its own without a period